PHHS Summer Reading and Assignment Program
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Summer Assignments 2015 Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Schools 2015 PHHS Summer Reading and Assignment Program 1 Summer Assignments 2015 Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Schools Introduction to Summer Reading and Assignments Grades 9-12 The titles on the following pages have been selected as required summer assignments in the designated courses. The selections were made based on the curriculum for these courses. Some reading assignments present mature subject matter and have been so identified in the annotation. Parents are encouraged to read these selections along with their child or prior to their child's reading the book. Parents who have any questions or concerns about summer assignments should contact one of the administrators listed below. For reading assignments, students may choose to borrow the books at the public library or to purchase the books for themselves. If students are unable to locate the required books, they should call the principal who will assist them in acquiring them. When students return to school in September, they will be asked to participate in activities based on the summer reading. One of the most important goals of the summer assignment program is to engage students in activities that will prepare them for upcoming curriculum in the new school year. To this end, students should complete the assignments carefully and reflect on what they are doing so that they are well positioned to reap the most benefit from their educational program. Dr. Nancy A. Gigante, Assistant Superintendent/ [email protected] Chief Academic Officer 973-263-7180 x7340 Mrs. Vicky Santana , Coordinating Supervisor of [email protected] Social Studies/World Languages 973-263-7180 x7172 Mrs. Jennifer Frantz, Coordinating Supervisor of [email protected] Language Arts/6-12 ESL 973-263-7180 x7194 Ms. Cathy Jo Speidel, Coordinator of Science [email protected] Instruction/Business/FCS/Ind. Arts 973-263-7180 x7247 Mrs. Pamela Freund, Coordinator of Math/Art/ Music [email protected] 973-263-7180 x7006 Summer Assignments 2015 Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Schools Grades 9-12 Science Students will participate in instructional activities that give them the opportunity to practice and enhance their skills in scientific reading, critical thinking & analytical reasoning. These activities will also offer the opportunity to develop their ability to apply their scientific knowledge and skills to new situations. Science Summer assignments are currently only for high school students taking either Honors or Advanced Placement courses. Specific instructions for each course can be located by clicking on the link below for the high school where the instruction will occur. Once on the school website, click on the name(s) of courses being taken to receive details of the assignment. For Parsippany Hills High School (PHHS) Science courses: Parsippany Hills High School Science Summer Assignments Summer Assignments 2015 Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Schools Grade 9 English I Honors Ford, Jamie. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Ballantine Books, 2009. ISBN# 9780345505347 Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet takes you on a journey through Henry’s struggle as a Chinese-American living through conflicting times of World War II. By facing the conflicts of racial oppression as an Asian-American at this time and taking a risk dating a Japanese woman, Henry inadvertently discovers his Chinese culture, what it means to be American, and his role as a son, husband, and father. Grade 9 English I and English I Replacement Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Penguin Group, 1999. ISBN# 9780312674397 Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so her old friends won’t talk to her, and the people she doesn’t know hate her from a distance. It’s no use explaining to her parents; they’ve never known what her life is really like. The safest place for Melinda to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that’s not safe. Because there is something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party, that, if she admitted it and let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have no choice. Melinda would have to speak the truth. Summer Assignments 2015 Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Schools Grade 9 World History Honors Crichton, Michael. Timeline. Knopf/Ballantine Books, 1999. ISBN# 0-345-41762-3 Timeline deals with time travel coupled with the study of the Middle Ages in Europe, an introductory unit in Grade 9 Honors World History. In a series of seemingly unrelated events, historians and archeologists who are excavating a medieval city in France find a note dated 4/7/1357 that was written by one of the current members of their team. What unfolds is a suspenseful journey taken by these historians back to the Middle Ages to help one of their own. The historians discover that the stories about the Middle Ages are in fact true and the horrors become more real as they try to uncover a secret and return back to their present day lives. Their biggest obstacles are a renegade knight who will not let them go that easily, and a return deadline to meet. The book presents a vivid picture of life in Europe during the Middle Ages. Summer Assignments 2015 Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Schools Grade 10 English II and Replacement English II Dumas, Firoozeh. Funny in Farsi. Random House, 2004. ISBN# 0812968379 Funny in Farsi is an award-winning memoir of an Iranian-American woman and her eclectic family. The stories she shares are little memories revealing her immigrant “Americanization.” Each chapter reads like its own personal narrative, and the reader grows to appreciate her strange family members as humorous characters on their own cultural odyssey. Ms. Dumas shares her personal and inspirational definition of what it means to be an American. English II Honors Potok, Chaim. The Chosen. Fawcett Books, 1967. ISBN# 0-449-21344-7 This best-selling 1967 novel by Rabbi Chaim Potok traces the friendship of two adolescent Jewish boys in 1940’s Brooklyn. As one boy is Orthodox and the other Hasidic, an interesting conflict evolves between them concerning the meaning of life, suffering, and love. This conflict reaches a heart-wrenching climax as the details of the Holocaust are revealed to the world at the close of World War II. The English II Honors course of study requires students to experience and respond to the influences of various cultures on thought, language, and literature, and Potok's novel The Chosen lends itself to this endeavor. Classroom activities will build on English I Honors instruction on using textual evidence to support a position and identifying the elements of a novel including figurative language and sensory images. McBride, James. The Color of Water. Riverhead Books. 1997. ISBN# 1-573-22578-9 The Color of Water is a Black man’s tribute to his White mother. This memoir is of McBride’s childhood and the telling of his mother’s story in her own words. McBride’s novel is a meditation on race and identity. He has written a portrait of growing up using her narrative. The Color of Water provides an opportunity for students to analyze the nature of 20th century contemporary American literature. Students' previous study of To Kill a Mockingbird prepares them for the racial issues that are present in The Color of Water. Summer Assignments 2015 Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Schools Grade 10 United States History I Students are required to read one of the following: McCullough, David. 1776. Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN# 0-7432-2671-2 The story chronicles the events that occurred during the year of 1776. The text begins with the colonies in rebellion over the laws imposed by Britain. McCullough engages the reader in the intense drama of the war; he describes the incredible variety of Americans who fought in the war, what they endured and how they gave everything of themselves for a cause. As the military pressure increases for the colonials, the story explains in explicit detail how the political ties are severed with Britain in the writing and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A major focus in the story is the unswerving devotion of these troops to their leader George Washington. Each battle of 1776 is recounted through the actual words of these citizen soldiers as read from their diaries or personal letter. Hence, the reader is drawn into the crucial events and feels very much a part of the Continental army’s pain and loss. Students study the events that lead up to the American Revolution and the key battles of the war. The importance of George Washington is significant to the study of US I as a key figure in the Continental Congress, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the creation of the Constitution. The development of the new country is largely formed by the precedents set by Washington’s leadership as the founding father and first president of our nation. Philbrick, Nathaniel. The Mayflower and the Pilgrim’s New World, Puffin; Reprint edition 2009. ISBN# 978-0142414583 Abridged and adapted from Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (Penguin, 2007), this volume highlights both the Pilgrims' determination to find and settle a home where they could worship freely and the perilous journey that it took to make that happen. After a dangerous journey across the Atlantic, the Mayflower’s passengers were saved from certain destruction with the help of the Natives of the Plymouth region. For fifty years a fragile peace was maintained as Pilgrims and Native Americans learned to work together.